This invention relates to a curable resin composition useful for forming a coating with excellent anti-fogging property and abrasion-resistance on surface of transparent plastics, inorganic glass, mirror materials, etc.
Transparent plastics (so-called organic glass), inorganic glass, etc. are widely used as transparent materials. These materials, however, have some defects, and one of their most inconvenient defects is that they collect moisture and dew on their surfaces and thus are fogged when they are transferred into a hot and humid atmosphere or placed at a boundary between two atmospheres with large differences in temperature and humidity, for example, when they are used in bathrooms, kitchens, humid workshops, etc., or for vehicles such as automobiles in winter, and the like. Therefore, it is desired in various fields of application and it is of practical value to impart an anti-fogging property to transparent materials such as windowpanes or mirrors or eyeglasses and mask goggles to be used under those conditions. For this purpose, many attempts have been made to develop so-called coating methods for forming anti-fogging coatings on the surface of transparent materials or mirrors. For example, an anti-fogging coating mainly comprising poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate) is well known. Indeed, this and any other anti-fogging coatings which hitherto have been proposed and provided are satisfactory in the anti-fogging function to a certain extent, but all of them lack abrasion resistance and are very easily scratched. Because of this fatal defect, they are not yet put to practical use.
From this point of view, with the aim of developing a composition capable of forming a coating which has both excellent anti-fogging function and high abrasion resistance and is of practical use for the protection of transparent materials or mirrors, we have studied a number of materials for coating and have discovered the present invention.